Las Vegas campus gunman identified as struggling academic

(Reuters) -The gunman shot dead by police after he killed three professors and wounded a fourth at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was a financially struggling academic who was denied employment by several higher education institutions in Nevada, police said on Thursday.

The lone suspect in Wednesday’s gun violence at UNLV was identified as Anthony James Polito, 67, of suburban Henderson, Nevada, who according to police was facing eviction and had a previous criminal record of computer trespass dating to 1992 in Virginia.

The precise motive for the shooting rampage remained to be determined, but officials said it appeared that UNLV students were not the primary target of the attack.

Investigators learned the suspect had visited a post office before the shooting and mailed 22 letters to various university personnel across the country with no return address, and had a list of people he was seeking on the UNLV campus and faculty at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where he had once taught.

Authorities managed to intercept the letters before any of them were delivered, and found a suspicious white powdery substance in at least one of them, according to Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The contents of the letters remained otherwise under investigation, the sheriff told reporters, adding anyone else in higher education who might receive such a letter should exercise caution and contact authorities.

He said officials were working to notify the intended recipients of the letters and had contacted nearly everyone on the apparent target list to make sure all were safe. They had yet to reach just one from East Carolina University who was on an overseas airline flight, McMahill said.

None of the victims from Wednesday’s bloodshed, all of them UNLV faculty members, was on the list investigators found, according to the sheriff.

He said detectives also had uncovered evidence that Polito was struggling financially, including an eviction notice taped to the door to his residence.

“We know he had applied numerous times for jobs with several Nevada higher education institutions,” McMahill added, but did not say whether UNLV was one of them.

The UNLV campus will remain closed through Friday as authorities continued their investigation and as students and faculty prepared for final exams. The UNLV website said classes had been canceled through Dec. 10.

UNLV President Keith Whitfield wrote on the site that he was grieving the victims, and urged university community members to seek help if they needed it.

“My heart breaks for the many students, faculty, staff, parents, loved ones, and community members who suffered through hours of painful uncertainty while officers ensured that our campus was safe and secure again,” Whitfield wrote.

Law enforcement received a call reporting gunfire on campus at about 11:45 a.m. and “immediately engaged the suspect in a shootout,” UNLV police chief Adam Garcia told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday. He said the suspect was fatally shot by campus police.

Eyewitness Cesar Marquez, 33, a political organizer, was in a meeting with about 70 students when the shooting broke out. Marquez and the students locked the door, turned the light down, and hid under the tables, he told Reuters.

“We just stayed quiet,” he said. “Stayed right there until the SWAT team came in and were able to evacuate us. It was a scary time when somebody you don’t know tried to open the door and we weren’t sure if it was the shooter or it was the police.”

The surviving gunshot victim was listed in stable condition on Wednesday, but McMahill said on Thursday his condition had been downgraded since then.

Several other people suffered panic attacks during the pandemonium, and a number of officers were treated for minor injuries sustained while searching the sprawling campus for additional victims or suspects, according to McMahill. None were found.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Steve Gorman in Los AngelesEditing by Bill Berkrot and Matthew Lewis)